But, when the time comes to place a group of homo sapiens on top of a rocket with the goal of launching them onto the Moon’s orbit, one thing is guaranteed: the trip out to lunar space will not be a mancation.

NASA could have broken the gender barrier years earlier than it did with the WISP program. However, it was not until eleven years after Apollo 17 that Sally Ride became the first American woman astronaut. She was followed shortly thereafter by Judith Resnick, Kathryn Sullivan, Anna Fisher, and a whole host of women pilots, scientists, and specialists turned astronaut.

So it stands to reason that as we train the next batch of astronauts, those that will be first in line for the next beyond-LEO mission, there will be a nice mix of gender diversity in the space capsule.

But, the road for future women astronauts is still a rough path. Take my 10 year old daughter for instance. She is the only girl on the Lego robotics club and the only one on the math team. Sometimes it can be lonely for a girl that runs with the geek crowd.

Many colleges, universities, and other organizations are putting on the full court press to keep girls interested in math and the sciences beyond elementary school. With NASA contemplating a reinvigorated human spaceflight program, here’s to the great success of those efforts. We’ll need it to keep the pool of potential women astronaut full.